AL Notes: Dozier, Donaldson, Doubront, Fasola

ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick has an interesting profile of Twins star second baseman Brian Dozier. The Mississippi native has proven adept at picking up a variety of games and activities. Last year, it seems, he took an interest in hitting lots of home runs. Now that he has established the ability to play at such a high level in the majors, says Dozier, “everything seems different now.” He goes on to explain: “I’ve found the longer you’re in the game, the slower it becomes. The learning curves are there each and every year, but you become wiser and you realize what you have to do in order to succeed.”

Here’s more from the American League:

If the Blue Jays can’t rebound, they’ll have no choice but to explore a trade of star third baseman Josh Donaldson, Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star argues. Toronto is in a tough spot because of the talent gap between the current MLB roster and the clubs best prospects, many of whom aren’t really that close to contributing in the majors. If this Jays outfit isn’t able to turn around an abysmal start, says Griffin, dealing Donaldson might be the only chance the organization has to add quality, near-MLB talent. Regardless, the team must hope that Donaldson is able to get past his current calf issues as soon as possible.

Lefty Felix Doubront is still rehabbing for the Athletics, but there are already plans to make a change when he returns. Doubront will return in a relief role, GM David Forst told reporters including MLB.com’s Jane Lee (via Twitter). The 29-year-old has mostly functioned as a starter in the bigs, though he does have experience working from the pen as well. Doubront could return from his Tommy John surgery by June, per the report.

Rangers righty John Fasola underwent Tommy John surgery today, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports on Twitter. Fasola, 25, isn’t exactly a hyped prospect. But he did win the club’s award as the top reliever on the farm last year after throwing 51 innings of 3.18 ERA ball with 10.2 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9. Fasola went on to have a solid Arizona Fall League run and might soon have been a factor in the major league mix were it not for the injury.

Comments

The Blue Jays can’t trade Donaldson for near major league talent. If they decide to trade him. they have to get MLB ready talent for him. I hear all this talk about trading Donaldson, but as great of a player as Donaldson is, I don’t see a huge market for him. The Giants might have interest, but they don’t have the talent/prospects to acquire him. The Astros have the talent, but they’re not going to use it for a third baseman. They’ll use it for a top-end starter. I don’t see the Jays trading him within the division unless they really get blown away. That eliminates the Red Sox & Yankees. The Phillies have the talent, but I’m not sure they’d be willing to use it for Donaldson. If they decide to move on from Franco, they may choose to just wait for Machado to hit free agency. The only team I can see that has the talent to interest the Jays & might be in the market for a 3rd baseman is Atlanta. That’s not a huge market.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see dombrowski give up the package for him. Sandoval is atrocious and is the biggest glaring hole in their roster. Hell, as a Jays fan I’d take Sandoval back if Boston wanted to throw in some more top end prospects since Toronto wouldn’t be competing. Another team you could look at us the mets too. Reyes is bad and wright might not play so a package revolved around Rosario and smith could possibly happen.

There would be a huge market for Donaldson. MVP types don’t come around often and a healthy Donaldson can carry a team. Teams would make room for him even if they feel they are set a third base. I like a Red Sox deal for Sandoval and prospects too, but I would hate to trade Donaldson at all, such a priemier player. My preference is to keep him a Jay if possible. There are 3 1/2 months to go before the trade deadline which is lots of time for things to change on the Jays and in the marketplace. Who knows who will have value and who won’t,have value so realistically, we will have to wait until then to discuss the trade options.

Eh, I’m not sure about that. A team trading for Donaldson is going to likely be one that has a hole at 3b since even with an injury, a team probably wont sell the farm to acquire donaldson to fill in for an injured player for half the year. I guess a few holes could open up, but it doesn’t really seem like there is a super strong market. And while there is certainly surplus value there, he will be making 17 this year and probably something like 22m-ish next year (barring bad year) so that probably limits his market for some teams.

This is a serious question, how often do we see a team “make room” to trade for a player while also giving up a ton for them?

I don’t see the market being as huge for Donaldson as some are indicating. First off, he’s hurt right now. And then second, he will be a free agent after the 2018 season. Hard to believe a team is going to give up multiple top prospects for a player who is so close to free agency.

The Mets for a trade partner is interesting. With Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce’s money off the books they could afford Donaldson next year and get the jays to pay his remaining money for this year. With Yoenis Cespedes in his prime, all the pitching talent the mets have and Michael Conforto ready to go the mets would be a scary team this year and next with Donaldson at third.

Why on earth would the Jays take Sandoval’s awful contract? That is one of the worst contracts in baseball for a bad player. Boston traded away Moncada in the Sale trade & that’s the only guy I would’ve considered taking Sandoval’s contract for. (they aren’t going to trade Betts, Bogarts & Bennetendi in any deal). I don’t see the Jays trading Donaldson to the Red Sox or Yankees unless they get completely blown away in a trade. The Mets could use a third baseman, but will they offer in return? They haven’t been known to offer a lot of top end talent in trades.

@Eric has a point though. Solid 3B like Justin Turner had a small market this offseason. Don’t see a lot of teams looking for a huge upgrade at third. Donaldson also has a lot of defensive value, so trading for him to play at another position doesn’t make sense

You do realize the Yankees have the 2nd best farm system in baseball right? Jorge Mateo, Clint Frazier, Gleyber Torres, and more? Though that talent is way better than Donaldson, so there’s no way you’d get one, let alone two of them for him.

3 “good” years? An MVP in 2015 and pretty much as good in 2016? I’m a Sox fan, don’t like the guy much, and I still think your comment is ridiculous. He’s a stud, and the only teams for whom he wouldn’t be a serious upgrade are Baltimore, Colorado, Cubs and Tampa.

I hope you mean all that talent combined is maybe better than Donaldson. because none have those guys have played or done anything in the majors to suggest they are even in the same stratosphere as Donaldson.

There is another team that has the talent Toronto might want. The Cardinals. They are in need of a third baseman. Donaldson could answer a lot of questions for the Cardinals, both offensively and defensively.

Atlanta has need of a major league thirdbaseman. Adonis Garcia hasn’t shown the ability to produce up to league average at the position either offensively or defensively. Internal options such as Chase d’Arnauld or Jace Peterson are unpalatable. Prospects such as Rio Ruiz, Austin Riley and Travis Demeritte aren’t ready either. The only possible internal option I see is calling up Ozzie Albies for second and moving Brandon Phillips to third (and I don’t think that is likely).

BUT I don’t in anyway see the braves as thinking that the team is one major move away from serious contention enough to trade the high end prospects that it would likely take to net Donaldson from the Jays. If by some chance the Braves are several games over .500 in mid-June then of course those chances become increased (of course personally I don’t think the scenario is likely itself). So in other words I don’t see Donaldson going to Atlanta at this point. Just my opinion.

No it isn’t. They are off to a terrible start. Considering your options is smart process. If you read carefully, you’ll notice that most of these suggestions include the caveat, “if they don’t turn it around”.

“If the Blue Jays can’t rebound,”

When you are already a fringe team and you start off your season by falling 6.5 games back, you really need to take a long look at what you realistically think your team can do.

They don’t need to panic yet, but they should absolutely be exploring what they will do if they continue to be unimpressive.

While all that is true, baseball is a funny game. People predicted Toronto to be better than the Yankees, who are fresh off of a seven game win streak. The Jays are one good week of baseball away from being back into the picture and other teams will go on similar slides. Of course none of this matters if the bats don’t wake up.

I agree they should be exploring their options now too, but they shouldn’t be pulling the trigger on a deal yet because they’ve had two bad weeks in April.

Like I said, they don’t need to panic yet. But Last year it took 87 games for the lowest wild card. To get to that, the blue jays would need to go 84-64 (.568) the rest of the way, which is about a 92 win pace over 162. Other than just random chance/luck, is there any reason to believe the Jays can perform at that kind of pace for the rest of the season?

It’s nice to say that baseball is baseball and things happen, but when you look at actual probabilities, what are the chances that the jays are able to play significantly better over the course of the year? Especially if any of these injuries they currently have are more than just minimum 10 day things.

Vritually zero chance of the Jays to go on a 92 win clip, especially with the combination of malaise hitting and the weak starter depth. Still lots can happen in 3 1/2 months. The bats are starting to wake up a bit. Is the pitching going to be the pitching that makes or breaks this.year?

The Cardinals were 10.5 games out in August, not 20. They were also a vastly better team than the Blue Jays AND had the benefit of a Braves team that utterly collapsed. Sure, it could happen, but is it better to hope for a historic comeback or trade your pieces while they have value? I’d rather they blew up the aging roster and rebuilt.

Do you really not understand how an organization ending their historic WS drought is not comparable to something like this? “108 years of history” has no bearing on the teams and players playing baseball that year (unless you want to argue they had some extra pressure). You’ve mentioned it twice now, so I assume you think this supports your point.

No team that has started 1-9 has gone to the playoffs. You know why? Because good teams don’t normally start off 1-9 and also because that is a large hole to dig yourself into. In order to make up for that, they need to play like a 92ish/162 team from here on out. Do you have any reason to suspect that this team, which was projected to be a little over 500, started off terribly, and now has some injury issues will not only play like they were supposed to, but significantly better?

Can it happen? Sure. Is it likely to happen? No. Which is why having a conversation about who they will trade, even in april, is a non-crazy discussion.

My point is , Cubs fans talk out of both sides of their mouths, collectively. They say 108 years of history had nothing to do with current team, which I 100% agree with, then say that 1-9 start should give up on season because historically it’s never been done. Way too early for any team to give up on season. I’ve seen a lot of teams that had “zero chance” that’ve came back and surprised everyone.

My apologies, I meant 20 as in a lot, kinda like saying someone lost a race by a mile. Figure of speech. Not literally 20 games. Fine, precisely 10.5 games out. Still makes my point. Who in august would have predicted cards as WS champs? That’s right, no one. So who’s predicting blue jays or cards will make playoffs? Pretty much no one. But. Try much still possible and I font think either team, or any other team minus already rebuilding teams ( white sox, etc.) should be sellers. Yet. Time may come. Way too early though.

One thing I could possibly see happening with the mets injury woes is a Donaldson, Estrada, and Liriano trade. The mets load up for this year, and the main piece heading back is matz. It’d be a gamble for both sides, but it’d give the mets a (probably) guarenteed healthy rotation that matz couldn’t provide. Estradas also a proven playoff performer.

Big and unlikely if, but…IF the Blue Jays would take Jung Ho Kang back in a deal, the Pirates could make a play for Donaldson.

If Kang was able to get a Canadian work visa (presumably easier than getting a US one) would he be able to enter the US on it? The Jays might be the only team he could play for and he’s a cheap, controllable and proven MLB player.

But, Donaldson is cheap AND an impact player AKA the kind of player worth giving up some decent prospects and the Pirates certainly have need at 3B and for more power.

Dealing Cutch will rile a lot of the fans here. Getting Donaldson would make it “Cutch who?”.

Smoak had 450+ Ab’s 3 yrs in a row in Seattle and basically it was a strikeout or a home run. War from 0 – 1 and over the last 3 years War is around 0. Scouts put Smoak as very average player. He has a Major League build but AAA wrists, hence his long swing, so he is vulnerable. He can pick a bad throw with the best of them. His defense is slightly above average. and he is a good target for a first baseman. He is being paid 4.1 m this year and 4.1 m next year, a tad overpaid. His career line is career slash line of .224/.308/.392, hardly impressive.

lol, if we look a donaldson’s OPS+ or Bautista’s OPS+ – now those are above average, Smoak’s 106, 113, 105 for the years mentioned is just at or a minute grade above the average line. Saying Smaok is above average is stretching it. He is a bench player with power and wouldn’t be a fulltime player on any team that I would construct as a GM..

The Mets for a trade partner is interesting. With Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce’s money off the books they could afford Donaldson next year and get the jays to pay his remaining money for this year. With Yoenis Cespedes in his prime, all the pitching talent the mets have and Michael Conforto ready to go the mets would be a scary team this year and next with Donaldson at third.